Does OS X + iOS = iAnywhere?

Could Apple be working on an operating system to combine OS X and iOS? Mark Moskowitz, a market analyst at J.P. Morgan, predicts that it is and he’s dubbed it iAnywhere. He predicts that within the next 12 to 18 months, this system will allow an iOS device (like an iPhone or iPad) to be docked to a specially configured secondary display and run as a full-blown computer.

The upside for Apple, according to Moskowitz, is “this category would be a leapfrog event, potentially jumpstarting iPhone and iPad growth as well as peripherals and cloud-based software and services sales.” However, Apple executives Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi explicitly said that convergence between iOS and OS X was “absolutely a non-goal” for the company and that the two operating systems would remain distinctly “different in those things that are critical to their essence.”

Of course, other PC manufacturers have flirted with the dual operating system concept, but never with successful results. Whether iAnywhere becomes a reality will remain to be seen, but if the statements from Apple’s executives are to be believed, I wouldn’t bet on it happening any time soon (if at all).